Initial effects of a free swimming pilot programme on the physical activity levels of young people.

Concerns remain over the physical activity (PA) levels of young people.1,2 Consequently, identifying interventions that are effective at encouraging young people to adopt and improve PA levels over the life course3 – especially those not meeting PA guidelines – is central to non-communicable disease prevention in later life.1 Efforts to increase PA levels through the promotion of swimming and aquatic activities for children and young people are one such option.4,5 Swimming has been referred to as the UK's ‘major participation sport’ and a mode of exercise that inactive groups contemplate when seeking to increase their PA levels.4 The aspiration to find effective and sustainable models of PA intervention necessitates rigorous monitoring and evaluation within the context where implementation takes place. With those thoughts in mind, this research set out to investigate the effectiveness of a local authority (LA) led pilot programme of free swimming (FS), with this paper reporting the initial key findings emerging from this study.